Rigorous Honesty, in the search of recovery from gross obesity. Mainly opinion, not advice. Some speculation, some errors, some fiction.
Sugar, grain and processed products are not food. Omega 6 oil and dairy should be mainly avoided.

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Thursday, March 31, 2016

What right does the government have telling women anything about abortion? An women who finds herself up the stump must have the right to seek medical help for the problem, if she chooses. The alternative is that she seeks the help of some untrained, unskilled, or skilled and profiting individual, as it once was.

In Canada we have had a series of bad laws, from eugenics sterilization of the mentally challenged, and abortion. The religious pro-lite idiots that cannot see the damage of forced pregnancy, and the loss of life through illegal back alley abortions. The pro-life group must bear the responsibility for all those deaths.

It we go back to the Greeks of old, when the family got to large, they took the newborns out and exposed them on a hillside. There were some who took in the unwanted, and raised them as there own. That is how Epictetus got his son, but I degrees.

Abortion is not a good solution, but it is a solution that for many is better than the alternative. We live in an overpopulated world. Who has the right to tell me how I should treat my body? and who can force it? If I want to eat myself to death, does anyone care enough to say anything? The door is always open, so who can close it?

I think the government is over-reaching, and over-reach can be answered with resistance that is not right but the only response possible. We give up some freedom for peace, but at some point government meddling in society is just too much, and then we will rebel. Look out for that day. It is close. We see individuals making violent statements when they see no other choice. These events will continue, since we are leaving in such crowded environment, and not addressing injustice and are endeavoring to force beliefs and behaviors on to the people, that the people do not want.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

So now that I have been off tea; hence, caffeine for ten days what have I experience?

appetite about the same, but sugar rich foods - apple and cough drops - taste much sweeter, and that was no sugar in the tea before.

Passions are higher, aka irritation at traffic is worse. That may be part of withdrawal. Horn honkers still piss me off. Nobody moves because of a horn. It is just rude and obnoxious, and demonstrates the blowers ignorant and pushy attitude.

Headaches persisted for a weak.

I was in the habit of stopping and making tea, and sitting and reading while I drank the tea. Now hot water works, but I am not inclined sit and read. Perhaps the removal of tea has made me more agitated in general.

Stimulus to no stimulus will take more time to adjust to. I do not feel less stimulated, but I have never in memory been caffeine free. I switched coffee to tea quite a few years ago, and tried no caffeine for a couple of days but went to tea.

My reaction time is way down, aka I have become a slug.

I startle much easier

We live in a world with "cultural ADHD", all hyped up on sugar, caffeine, and other drugs. I see this now more obviously, having slowed down a bit. The crazy people are just flying by.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Gandhi had a radical notion about religion and humanity. It goes like
this: If humanity is not yet perfect, and humanity created religion,
then religion is not perfect yet, either. At the same time, both can
evolve toward higher and higher states of perfection, that is, to be of
benefit to a wider and wider whole. This was, for Gandhi, a major
opportunity, if not a duty: do not throw away a religion because of its
imperfections; work them out. A religion should withstand criticism. A
religion, after all, is the expression of a human desire for a vision of
unity, and that vision is as yet far from complete. Gandhi is hinting
that there is an intimate relationship between our view of religion and
of ourselves; both are evolving.

This fellow does not publish comments; therefore I will not link to this.

Everything evolves, and especially our thinking. The next obvious evolution of religion is one where there is no god. What will it look like?

It would need to use primarily reason, with the reason stated. Nothing about this is obvious. We need to learn to live in a society where we have the basics but as people we need guidance on ways of thinking to remove stress from our lives, and are not subservient. It will teach virtues, and living virtues. It must almost first be a teaching system, or a philosophical argument as to which virtues are most important in our lives. We need to generally accept and follow laws, but also stand up to unjust laws, and just stupid unenforceable, useless laws.

It must be truthful. Saying something is about safety, when it is a money grab, is not truthful. Speed limits are about safety generally, but photo radar, as a method of enforcement is a money garb.

We humans have two sides, one passion based, one reason based. Which one governs and which should govern? I say reason should give guidance to all actions, and the passions provide the motivation, the impulse to action, and the social components. People with very high reason seem to have very low compassion; if these become self centered and narcissistic, we have a psychopath, which is also undesirable. Now the interesting thing about this is these are all trainable attributes of personalities. Some happen naturally in modern wild humans, By wild humans I mean those who have not reviewed their personality and made considered corrections. But what is the ideal human?

That is what religions try to develop, but do a poor job at communicating this. Buddhist are about compassion, peace, truth, loving kindness, and the path within all but mainly among the monks. The path are particular virtues and behaviors. There is some guidance as to what to believe, but no understanding of evolution or heredity. Confucianism thinks respect for authority, respect for duty, respect for tradition, for the elders, for the youth is more important. The Stoics were about rational thought and living a virtues life, mainly prudence or wisdom, fortitude or duty, moderation and self control or temperance, justice, frugality. The Christians about acceptance of fate, and steadfast faith, love thy neighbor, and obedience to the religion. Islam is about obedience, following the leaders, faith, charity, and servitude to the master. Prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage are tests to see who the faithful are and as training tools to obedience.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

After one week of no tea, no caffeine, there is no doubt, in my mind, that caffeine is an addiction. It has a longer desire period than nicotine, but almost as strong call for intake. As there are so many caffeine merchants, it will be more difficult to stay off of. It is also less damaging that other addictions, which is part of why society accepts it as normal.

As I do not live a stressful life now, it is difficult to say that there is any difference in the sense of urgency of action that I did feel. Going for coffee (tea) was a way of occupying social time that also must change. I would have difficulty walking into a Tim Hortons and asking for hot water, which under English grammar laws should be Horton's, but trademarks can do what ever they like. Perhaps it is I that has the issue of asking for hot water.

Hot water, and bring your own teabag was the old way of being cheap. It is that cheap attitude that give me a issue. I would expect that they charge something, I guess I will need to find out one day.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

If Drumpf Trump does secure the presidency, can Canada expect an influx of refugees?

We saw it in the late 60's & 70's with the draft dodgers and students. We say it in the 1860 with the underground railroad. We say it in the 1900' for the land in western Canada. We say it in 1915 to 1918 when the US was worried about getting drawn into WWI. Will the election of Trump cause an influx of Mexicans and Muslims into Canada?

I understand that the air traffic to Dubai is up, doubled from last year. Is that our new refugees heading back?

Cuba has free medical care for all it's citizens and free higher education for all that can keep up their grades. It has not enough jobs for the educated, so they go back for another degree.

What use is a foreign civil/ structural engineer in Canada until he learns the codes and the common practices. That was a major part of the course work in the last years when I went to university. This the way the formula was developed; you have the mathematics to solve it; here's what the code says you can do; here is an example, and a problem. Over, and over again, different issue, but the same format. Soils and materials were different, it was not code, but the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual, and the Asphalt Handbook, Concrete Handbook, etc. Without the local knowledge, an engineer would be a liability to the industry.

I am glad I retired when I did. I am tired of fixing up bad engineering and bad construction designs, but I digress.

We have high unemployment now with low oil prices and oil companies shutting down. One bigger oil servicing company, who own their own building, has the accountant, a old part time shop man who can do anything, and the manager left from 300 employees last summer. In Nisku, according to the local business association, has lost 300 oil manufacturing jobs in the last year. Sound like 1982, for those of you that remember. Trudeau, NEP, and drop in oil price.We took 12 years to recover. Sort of, where we could recover.

But now we have a new problem, more people into an already overpopulated environment. What is the government thinking? And on the horizon id Trump.

Rabbit have issues with cholesterol, if we just feed then oils. Statin industry started on that.
Mice do not tolerate or flourish on high fat diets. The vet told us that some time ago. http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.ca/
Humans do not flourish on high processed carbohydrate diets. The low - carb community has demonstrated that.
Human can flourish on high fat, high animal product diets, all the way to 90% vegetable, zero processed carbohydrates. Until processed carbohydrates burn out the beta cells and we develop diabetes. Oh well, we are overpopulated anyway.

Monday, March 21, 2016

The inland water cycle goes on, but each year we have less water in that cycle. In the above, no water is taken out of the cycle, so the relative amount of water in different parts of the cycle is irrelevant.

We need to trap spring water on the land and prevent spring runoff to make the cycle work. Everything white man has done since coming to this county has reduced the amount of water. We were the cause of the beavers being trapped and the land was cleared. We ditched the sloughs, and built houses. We drained the cities into the rivers where the water can run away. It was the water trapped in the sloughs that provided the water for the inland water cycle. Until it is restored, we will have drought and drying. To bad we are overpopulated and are destroying our environment during these early last throws of civilization.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Is caffeine an appetite stimulus or depressant? The net indicates both ways. Coffee seems to act as a short term hunger pacifier, as does tea. But does this effect last or really make any difference? I have been drinking tea for a long time, as my primary fluid intake. Is this have any effect on hunger? So how would one best do a test? As I may need to get off all caffeine perhaps a cold water comparison. Getting off caffeine may require some effort as I am likely addicted and there may be real chemical effects. Expect headache, says the net.

Comparing tea and water, from a physical theory, cold water will need to be warmed to body temperature, so that alone is 30 calories per liter water advantage. As a retired person, tea drinking fills a good bit of time. Now what am I going to do with that time?

n=1 Start March 17, AM, no more tea. St Patties day. So at the start, I was 10 hours into no tea.

Cold water seems to make the onset of hunger much more severe, aka get hungry faster and a stronger signal.

The caffeine takes over one day to be completely gone from the body, and then there is withdrawal which starts as the caffeine is in decline. What fun even staying off. Half life is 5.4 or 5.7 hours. Caffeine effects the water balance of we humans; therefore, expect either constipation or diarrhea or both at different times or neither. Ah the water balance, how much do we drink, how much passes through, and the remainder is the change onboard. We know that caffeine constricts the capillaries, and is a short term diuretic for some, including myself. Capillary constriction is how it effects blood pressure. Kidney capillary constriction re-uptake reduction is the diuretic effect.

Also the hunger ended sooner after the breakfast meal. I do not remember the last time I did not have hot tea for breakfast, it would have been coffee in my coffee drinking days. Without either... not in memory, I do recall a few time when I felt that I had insufficient coffee or tea.

A mild headache, caffeine withdrawal, I expect. Lay myself down in the quiet for a few minutes.

Now the space between breakfast and the next meal was 7.5 hours. Hunger came on rapidly and strongly. Water seems to help. Headache is light but annoying.

Headache severe. Next day, headache severe... It is tempting to make some tea to get rid of headache. Hot water will be my substitute for tea. After a late breakfast, the headache is less. Taste of food is more acute. Aftertaste is much stronger, particularly of eggs. Does tea kill aftertaste and taste or just hide it? Now on with my day.

So then along comes this https://authoritynutrition.com/caffeine-and-exercise/
But caffeine also seems to drive overeating, so which effect is larger? We it seems to depend on who you are so the only way to know is n=1 for a month or so. A few days may not get one clear of caffeine effects and stabilized to something that can last. How could I have missed that caffeine drives overeating all these years? Well, it is not yet proven, but only suggested it seems. This n=1 test may also show this or not.

Day 3, the headache is mild but there. I have cooked breakfast, but am not as hungry as I would normally be. Breakfast is ready to eat and I am not at it, how odd for me. So then without a doubt there is a connection between hunger and tea, likely caffeine in that tea. Only time will tell if there is any real connection.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The desire to eat is a hedonistic terminal desire, and a biological imperative driven desire. Few people have the will power to fast for extended periods, and shallow cuts take more will power than deep cuts. By shallow and deep cuts I mean shallow of perhaps 200 calories/day, while deep of perhaps 1000 calories/day. I am not sure how much more will power than cutting is required for fasting, but I expect it is considerable or considerable distraction is undertaken at the same time. I have never been able to fast long, except when I had to drink that stuff for a colonoscope, which the medical profession almost killed me with.

Programs like OA can help for a distraction and may help considerably for some but it does not help other forms of the overeating problems. It is not a single cause. It does seem to help with the maladaptive moral behavior issues, and the relationship based issues, perhaps even stress, which are the issues that are really addressed by the steps. For those of us who know that there is no god, and at best god is a concept that lends itself well to acceptance of a problem, and acceptance of the inability to deal with the problem, and thereby stopping struggling, when the problem is the struggling, it does help on the maturing out of the issue. See Stranton Peele for the full description of this problem. These programs do not help where there is a real physical drive to overeat, and the only solution is going against our nature and our desires on a ongoing basis. We need to accept that the problem is real and physical, and learn to not succumb to that miserable desire.

In reticent time, it has become increasingly difficult to resist the desire and the nouns are disappearing. I never was good at spelling, but I can no longer write much without google to look up words. I expect this is all connected with the onset of dementia, although I have not been diagnosed.

Hedonistic terminal desire, according to William B. Irvine, Desire, are the strongest desires, as these have direct rewards. In addition, all these type of appetite desires feed directly into the "serial" side of our brain, so some of us also struggle to change once we start down that path, because "neurons that fire together wire together", for what ever that is worth. This is the hallmark of addiction.

In most addictions, the desire reduces with abstinence from the substance. With food this is not happen for many, and practical long term, and salad with horrible of just tolerable dressing just does not cut it for long. It is one way to reduce consumption if there is nothing else available. Salads with just tolerable dressing is one way that I have used for weight loss.

The medical and addiction world has nothing to offer food addicts other than "faith in god" bullshit, and some counseling from the "believers". All local AAA meetings and Smart meetings are a bunch of sugar sucking, sugar pushing, alternative to alcohol cravings pushers, and that is not useful to a food addict. The books from Smart do not address the physical desire issue, as abstinence from food is not possible, and its explanation is not really correct, but the suggested plan is the only approach they have.

Meditation has an effect on many things but the effect on physical driven desires are minimal and do not last beyond the end of meditative state. So once we have sufficient food and philological information, what is the solution. Gut bacteria seem OK. This problem started by the time I was 6 years old, and it has never left.

So that leaves me where I are today, desiring to eat without end, and gaining. So what is the solution? Is there one? Does it even matter?

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

4:00 AM, and I wake up hungry. Perhaps it is time to learn more about this condition of unsatisfaction. So I spend a bunch more time searching the net. Nothing new there. Hunger is a "motivational state" that is supposed to send us in search of food. It does, and works as it should. Nothing new there.

Hunger is caused by insulin, ghrelin, leptin, Peptide YY, digestion speed, and a bunch of the usual suspects. Some say it is a psychological problem, and I am sure that is a component. There is the usual statements about... eating to just satisfy hunger... but that feeling never goes away for some of us.

I have looked at this as diet, life style choice, an addiction, a psychological issue, a maladaptive behavior, a lack of food knowledge problem, an environmental problem, a social issue, a familiar problem, a cultural problem, a philosophical problem --- and while these all help, they are not the complete solution. I have spent a fair bit of money and time chasing possible solution or getting suckered by dream merchants. I have explored OA, FAA, WW, TOPS, FA, AAA, SMART, JC, as well as the various other eating schemes, paleo, low carb, zero carb, fasting. It all come to eat less that I burn, I lose weight, and am hungry. Some helped some. Some less hungry, some more. No shit Sureluck.

So perhaps it is time to just give up and learn to live with hunger. How the f does one do that? The choice is learn or die an early death of obesity. It is that simple. I have battled this problem since I was 6 years old, and the amount of time I have been near normal weight could be counted in weeks, and have deep cycled 100 pounds 6 or 8 time. The last time it was 68 kg, and I have gained back 24 kg over the last 4 years, and that was on low carb, Paleoish, virtually no grains, etc.

I have outlive my doctor, and the new one has a bigger problem with weight than I have. Old Tim told me years ago, when I was suffering from back pain that as it had been a problem for years, that I should just learn to live with it. Years later, I took up archery and the pain went away. Explain that if you can. Perhaps it is time to do the same with this diet problem.

So how does one learn to live hungry? Well, since hunger is a natural motivation state, one will need more motivation or constraint to not eat than to eat. The desire for food, sex, are physical and at the gene/animal level according to some. Some people have too much sex drive or one of those perversions of sex that have become accepted by society as being not normal but real. Why not a food overdrive? Just because we do not want it, what difference does that make. Not all gays want to be gay. Or is this just one more excuse? I doubt it. It feels real.

I find recipes and food pictures stimulate appetite so those will be quashed, ejected, suppressed when possible.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

There may be a few that can learn to eat low carb, and become satisfied on less food that they burn hence become normal sized. There are those to who meter their food and become able to live like that. Good for them, keep it up. Most of suffer at losing, and maintaining, and therefore not able to do it long term. Why? It is the food pushing environment we live in. We cannot get away.

The appetite is tied into the serial part of our brain and does not respond directly to logic. We get hungry, we want to eat, and once we start, we are unable to stop, unless we run out of food. So what does science offer? Eat less, move more. But that is not the problem, it is in the doing of that. We all know that if we were able to eat less and move more, we would not have the problem. Those who are able do not have the problem. The remainder of us, the other half have a problem which the thin refuse to accept or does not exist for them, and can offer no help for the problem, other that criticism, condemnation and belittling.

We are a dipole population. At least what the data tells us, for those of us who only look at the data (engineering). We are not homogeneous in this, the weight/obesity data tells us this; we are two groups of something like Chi-squared with quite a bit of freedom, one group is of the 1-Chi-squared, and combined we look something like normal distribution. But that is not what the minds that govern us seem to think. They are fixated on a single population, some eat too much and move to little.

Obesity is a mental problem, not a motivational problem. It is not yet understood enough to remove the problem, but some of us are making progress. We have been fed bullshit all our lives, and when we realize this and start cleaning out our minds, we start to make progress.

The establishment is becoming irrelevant to many, and will soon be irrelevant to all, so establishment f-off, with your condemnation, until you understand the problem and can offer real help.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

"Banning food and beverage advertisements to children (where food advertisements have been proven to increase kids' eating)"

For those of us with low impulse control, and/or high susceptibility to suggestion, aka easy to influence with advertising, it would be a substantial benefit to us for the government to ban all food/sugar advertising. One advertisement can whet an appetite, regardless. I am not likely to buy there products, but am am likely to go look at what is available in the fridge, cupboards, etc. It is suggestion that leads to food thoughts, looking, urges, temptation, desires, thoughts, and eating/snacking/overeating and down the road to obesity.

Those who are busy, not easily influenced, not watching TV etc, are not exposed to the advertisement, are not effected. Muting helps but it is not enough. A total ban on food advertising could have a big impact, but that would need to be tested first. A total advertising ban for a period of time with surveys before and after a year would be the best way to test it. Only survey people who are overweight and watch TV a lot, for we are the canaries in the obesity mine.

The government does not have the balls to take on the food industry, so that can never happen, however the CRTC may help. We now have TV on demand which has much less commercials and could have no food commercials, but not all the programs. If our Canadian Senate takes it on, they would be worthwhile.

Improving access to nutritious food in Canada's northern communities ---- For any of you that have spent time in the northern small communities, it will be obvious that low carb frozen is the way to go. But then the north requires cooking lessons, and an understanding of low carb cuisine, along with the whole non-low carb world. I never eat as well as I have since studying low carb, and living low carb, but that also takes a different set of cooking skills.

Ensuring that the revision of Canada's Food Guide excludes the direct involvement of food industry representatives---- Really. Do you think the Canadian Senate has the balls to do that? The crying will be loud.

If the senate was that influential, we would not be questioning the value of the senate. Good luck.

And now how can I maintain respect with honesty, truth, non-violence, moderate compassion, and moderation in self control.... But what do I know?

Saturday, March 5, 2016

It is difficult to argue, as to present an philosophical argument with people who believe they are right for no other reason because they believe it, and thinking make it so. The only way to deal with such is through apathy.

This was part of a discussion of the right to die, to trim the final miserable end of life, when it will be just days we are talking about. Our lives, if we are free, is something that we should have absolute control over, and do, as long as we are physically able. The government may say we do not, but are we free or not? Certainly the medical profession should not have the right to make one suffer, as they create revenue for themselves by the suffering and hanging on of the elderly and infirm, where there is no hope of reasonable recovery and there is no quality of life, and little awareness of life either. We would not permit animals to suffer like that.

Marcus Aurelius procrastinated in a writing assignment in his studies with Fronto - to arguing both the pro and contra for a position in the same assignment. That is equivalent to making a cost benefit analysis, both ways. One way misery, the other peace. One way some period of pain, suffering, hardly aware of life if even aware of life. The other way no more. It is shorting the suffering only, for by that point, life and the pleasures of life are done.

Sacredness of life is only sacred if there is a god. Logic says that if something exists, we should be able to find evidence. If there is no evidence, that the science says it does not exist, or its effects are small or is not. Therefore, the hypothesis that there is a god can only lie toward the truth by the amount of not being able to prove it wrong, not enough to base a life on; therefore, the religious waste time on only a hypothesis, but we permit that with apathy. Oh well.

When we go at a problem, we can change our self, the situation (good luck with that), or we can just stop caring and let the shit fall where it does (apathy). It is a common choice.

Respect, truth, non-violence, moderate compassion, and moderation in self control.... But what do I know?